Cradle-To-Cradle: the Next Packaging Paradigm?
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
DAVID NEWCORN, SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR 1 CRADLE-TO-CRADLE: THE NEXT PACKAGING PARADIGM? AN ARCHITECT AND A CHEMIST MAKE A COMPELLING BUSINESS ARGUMENT FOR ECOLOGICALLY “INTELLIGENT” PACKAGING THAT’S ALSO GOOD FOR THE BOTTOM LINE. How’s this for an environmental packaging strategy? • Use more packaging material, not less. • Instead of designing with the cheapest materials, design the best package possible, without worrying about per-package cost. • “Littering” can help the environment. Sound politically incorrect, and financially suicidal? Take a closer look. What if that ice cream wrapper lying on the side of the road were designed to “melt” into a biosafe liquid in a matter of hours at ambient tempera- tures? What if the foam food container was not only biodegradable, but incorporated essential nutrients to re- plenish the topsoil? What if there were such a thing as fifth-class postage that existed solely for the purpose of returning packag- ing to the manufacturer? Instead of buying the cheapest possible packaging, you buy the best possible packaging because you are getting most of it back. And guess which package looks better on the shelf as a result? Extreme? Yes. Possible? Only time will tell. Architect Bill McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart offer a new vision It’s all part of a new way of product and package de- for packaging and the environment. sign, called cradle-to-cradle design. By contrast, traditional cradle-to-grave design practi- performance, or a biological nutrient that can safely cally guarantees a product or package will end up as un- break down into the soil (see illustration, page 2). wanted waste that must be dealt with at some cost to the The originators of this concept, architect William end user. Plus, the manufacturer loses the economic val- McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, recently ue of reusing the material, because it’s on a one-way trip published a book on the subject called Cradle to Cradle: out of the factory. Remaking the Way We Make Things. The authors’ design consultancy, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry Technical and biological nutrients (MBDC), has worked with companies like Ford Motor Cradle-to-cradle design means literally designing Co., Nike, Herman Miller, and BASF to help redesign waste right out of the lifecycle of the package. their products using the cradle-to-cradle concept. Mimicking nature, a package is designed to be either a Though the authors have done a few packaging projects, technical nutrient that can be reused, or truly recycled in their design concept is essentially brand new—and a tight, closed-loop process with zero loss in material untested—in the field of packaging. WWW.PACKWORLD.COM ENVIRONMENTAL PACKAGING STRATEGY 2 However, packaging is an area that’s well suited to additives, you always end up with downcycling.” In oth- the cradle-to-cradle design concept, the authors say. er words, a park bench instead of a pop bottle. They contend that cradle-to-cradle design has the poten- Instead, package designers can still use the same ma- tial to expand, not reduce, the choices of materials avail- terials they’re using now, but positively select the ingre- able to package designers. They say packaging can be dients of that material for recyclability. That could mean designed to be an asset after use, rather than a liability, a 100% post-consumer-recycled (PCR) package that for customers. Finally, they argue that cradle-to-cradle looks and prints as good as new. “We have been testing packaging can cost the same or less than the packaging polymers that can be reused up to 90 times with the same it replaces. performance characteristics,” says Braungart. Instead of focusing on the moral argument, which tra- It’s not just about plastic—paper-based packaging can ditionally pits environmentalism against business inter- be designed this way too. “If you design inks in a way ests, the authors have made a compelling business argu- that you can wash them out, then you get white paper ment for ecologically “intelligent” products and packag- again,” says Braungart. ing that are also good for the bottom line. Or instead of becoming a technical nutrient, a pack- We asked the authors, in a series of exclusive interviews, to flesh out The traditional way: The cradle-to-cradle way: their vision for how cradle-to-cradle design might play out in packaging. eco-efficient packaging eco-effective packaging Minimize the amount of packaging Use as much packaging as is desired to No more ‘ugly’ packaging materials to reduce impact on protect and differentiate the product McDonough and Braungart frown environment. because that package will become a on what they term eco-efficient pack- biological or technical nutrient after its aging, with its traditional focus on first use. making packaging merely less dam- aging to the environment. For exam- Discourage littering because materials Discarded biodegradable ple, a bottle with recycled content is don’t break down for decades; and, if packaging that incorporates soil nutri- still headed on a one-way trip to a they do, toxic additives can enter the ents would actually benefit the environ- environment. ment, not harm it. landfill, unless a consumer happens to recycle it. Consumer is left with the liability of Consumer no longer has disposal liabili- Instead, the authors favor eco-effi- package disposal after product is ty because package will become a tech- cient packaging, which is designed at consumed. nical or biological nutrient after its first the outset to travel in either a biolog- use. Customer is left with a positive im- ical or technical closed loop. pression of the product and the manu- “For me, packaging is far too im- facturer. portant to make it merely efficient,” Recycled-content packaging can By positively selecting the right addi- says Braungart. In other words, the result in reduced performance and tives and inks, packaging can be cheap- trade-off associated with traditional attractiveness. er to recycle in a true, 100% closed- eco-efficient packaging—duller col- loop process with no loss in perform- ors and reduced performance charac- ance. teristics—is not only not worth it, it’s Recycling often requires consumers to Consumers pitch all recylables in a sin- unnecessary, Braungart maintains. distinguish among unfamiliar types of gle bin and biodegradables in another, What stands in the way of true materials, such as various types of plas- letting modern sortation technology do closed-loop recycling, according to tics. the work. Braungart, is not the materials them- selves—it’s often the additives and Deposits may be mandated by law. Packagers can create their own deposit inks, which were never designed or systems to recover expensive, desirable selected with closed-loop recyclabil- packages. ity in mind. The result is that “you Packaging materials must be as cheap Returnable packaging reduces or elimi- are highly limited in the next use of as possible, often leading to multilayer nates the need to create hybrids that that material,” says Braungart. “If composites or laminates that are diffi- don’t readily disassemble into technical you mix all these different types of cult or impossible to reuse or recycle. or biological nutrients. WWW.PACKWORLD.COM ENVIRONMENTAL PACKAGING STRATEGY 3 age can be designed to be a biological one. “As Book as information package: To illustrate the soon as you add more than 35% linear polyesters authors’ point, the book itself is made entirely to PET, the whole material becomes biodegrad- out of polypropylene, which can be melted able,” says Braungart. down to make another PP book. Today’s infor- “I’m saying we should design for reincarna- mation packaging (books) are what the au- tion,” says Braungart. “You plan the next use of thors call “monstrous hybrids” of paper, the material into the package already.” board, adhesives, cloth and other materials, which can only end up in a landfill. Reusability saves The notion of reusable packaging is a big poten- tial part of the cradle-to-cradle vision. “Today, Why did the beverage indus- packaging needs to be cheap, which limits the de- try move away from returnable signer’s possibilities,” says Braungart. Viewing packaging? Several reasons. packaging as a technical nutrient that can be reused One was the development of “means you can use far more valuable and expen- the recyclable aluminum can in sive materials,” he says. This hinges, of course, on 1962. Another was labor costs, the cost-effective recovery of those materials. particularly the teamsters who operated the trucks that William McDonough says some packaging, such as delivered product to the stores. Further, retailers didn’t for consumer electronics, is ripe for return, via, say, like committing valuable space to returned containers fifth-class postage. awaiting pickup, nor did they like the labor involved in “There’s no reason we can’t create it,” says McDon- making refunds. And bottling plants didn’t like the ough. “That can be our recycling system. We say to space, labor, and energy required for bottle sanitizing FedEx, UPS, the postal service, look, you guys have systems. In the end, it was cheaper for the industry to trucks moving around—they come full, they leave emp- switch to one-way packaging, which it did. ty. How about they come full, they leave full? What you So though the notion of returnable consumer packag- do is you just make it lowest priority. Nobody thinks ing is intriguing, there’s quite a history that would have about the positive aspects of low priority. Any postage to be overcome to make it a reality for most packagers. truck that’s driving around empty at end of day is subop- timal.